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A CIF-Southern Section playoff grouping appeals committee on Tuesday rejected the Montview League’s appeal of Assistant Commissioner Glenn Martinez’s proposed playoff grouping that would move the Montview League out of the Mid-Valley Division and into the Northwest Division.

Represented by the Workman High School contingent of assistant principal Scott Cavanias, athletic director Victor Perdomo and varsity football head coach Scott Morrison, the league argued that a move out of the Mid-Valley Division and into the Northwest Division did not make sense on grounds of competitive equity, enrollment and geography.

The playoff groupings appeals committee, however, stood by Martinez’s proposal to move the Montview League to the Northwest Division to give it relief after the league posted just one playoff win in the past two seasons. The Southern Section reviews its playoff groupings every two years and bases its proposals on the past two year’s results. The current proposals would go into effect this fall.

“We thought what we presented was a better fit,” Perdomo said. “We got shot down, but they heard us.”

The Montview League can appeal Tuesday’s decision at the Southern Section council meeting on Apr. 25, at which time the new groupings will be ratified and put into effect. Perdomo said he was unsure whether the league would appeal again at the council meeting and that the next step will be to find out what the league’s coaches and principals want to do in the wake of Tuesday’s denial.

“The principals would have to vote on it and at this point I don’t know if that’s something they want to do, or if they’re ready to pick up the fight,” Perdomo said. “I don’t know how passionate they are about this. I guess we’ll find out when I get back to school tomorrow.”

Also Tuesday, the Tribune learned that the Mission Valley League is scheduled to appeal the new Mid-Valley Division proposal in another appeals hearing on Apr. 4. The league will be represented that day by El Monte principal Keith Richardson, and like the Montview League, will argue to keep the division as is.

Unlike the Montview League, the Mission Valley League would be staying put in the Mid-Valley Division under the new proposal. However, the league would face increased competition in the new-look division with the addition of the Alpha League and the omission of the Montview and Olympic leagues.

The prospect of playing in such a division has caused the Mission Valley League to state it will request to be moved along with the Montview and Olympic leagues to the Northwest Division on the grounds of competitive equity should CIF decide to move forward with the new proposal. The Mission Valley League has two playoffs wins in the past two seasons.

Tuesday’s denial, though, has Arroyo football coach Jim Singiser thinking his league may need to reconsider whether it wants to go forward with its appeal hearing.

“We wanted to keep it the way it was, but now that it’s not an option, we need to ask the (league’s) football coaches ‘How strongly do you feel about wanting to stay in the division?’” Singiser said.

The Mid-Valley Division is currently made up of the Almont, Mission Valley, Montview, Olympic, Rio Hondo and Valle Vista leagues. Its appeal to local coaches is that five of the six leagues are located in the San Gabriel Valley, and the sixth, the Olympic League, has just three schools that would represent any significant travel if a Valley team was to play them in the postseason.

If the Montview League does land in the Northwest Division, its teams could be faced with having to travel to Ojai or San Pedro for playoff games. Conversely, road games against Alpha League teams would possibly mean traveling as far away as Lancaster or Malibu for teams in leagues that remained in the new-look Mid-Valley Division. That’s a major reason why representatives from both the Montview and Mission Valley leagues argue it would be better to keep the division as is.

Monrovia has won the Mid-Valley Division the past two seasons. It’s victories in the last two championship games by a combined score of 91-22 have faced CIF with the conundrum of either moving the Wildcats and the rest of the Rio Hondo League out of the division or keeping the league in the division while beefing up the competition.

“I hate to move a league,” Martinez said earlier this month when his proposals were released. “I almost feel like I’m punishing five or six schools because of one team’s tremendous success. When you move a league up just because of one particular school, it’s just kind of hurting everyone and I don’t think that’s fair.”

Adding the Alpha League would certainly increase the competition at the very top of the Mid-Valley Division. The seven-school Alpha League is headlined by Sierra Canyon, which went 15-0 in 2011 and won the CIF State Championship Bowl Game in Division IV. The league is also home to past Mid-Valley Division champion Paraclete, which went 11-3 last season.

I’m thinking of a seven letter word that starts with p and ends with s.

Coaches Corner

To Desert Rat;
Good to hear from you again. Hope the family is doing good. Looking forward to re-kindling the great rivalry with the Spirits. Absolute Class Act your program is. Don’t know much about Sierra Canyon, except them being State Champs, that says enough. They talk about that travel up to Paraclete. What a site driving out of those City limits and seeing that beautiful Football Stadium. Incredible place for a playoff game. Hope everything works out with this re-alignment. Good Luck this year.

What?

Del Ray asked to get out of Northwest, Lompac killing that division for past five years, Why not switch Del Ray and Monrovias League?

New York

I would love to get another crack at the Los Padres League with Coach Maddox. I just wish Paso Robles were in that league as well. Driving several hours creates an unmatched playoff environment.

Middy

Desert Rat, you are right, The Montview boys are p—–s. But, no one has ever won anything. Azusa can’t get past the Valley Vista.

I don’t know about any rivalries so the Coaches Corner is incorrect. The only team to every play you guys is the Mead.

No one wants to go up to your place and play, I don’t care what time of year it is. So it looks like this: Mid Valley Final Four:

Monrovia
Sierra Canyon
Paraclete
San Dimas

SLEEPER: Schurr. I don’t care about a new HC….THey have 3500 kids. Nuff Said.

League Champs:
Sierra Canyon
Monrovia
San Dimas
Alhambra
South El Monte…..Yep I said it….South El Monte

AZTEC PRIDE

Desert RAT. LET ME SEE… WHAT’S STARTS WITH A P AND ENDS WITH A S???MMMM, WELL THAT’S EASY IT’S WHAT YOU HAVE BETWEEN YOUR LE.HAHAHA…

AZUSA FOOTBALL…

AZTEC PRIDE

MIDDY, I MEANT TO ADD YOU IN THE CONVERSATION ALSO AND SHOULD HAVE SAID WHAT BOTH OF YOU HAVE BETWEEN YOUR LEGS… AZUSA FOOTBALL… GOTTA LOVE IT

Desert Rat

Aztec Pride…dude surprised you’re not on suicide watch. Look you have to understand that moving to the Northwest is better for your teams for the foreseeable future. Your team CANNOT cut the mustard in the Mid Valley. The only that can’t see that is the jaded fans, coaches and administrators. Its time…bust out the gas card and get out of the confines of the SGV in mid-November and what luck the Northwest has come playoff time.

As for Middy…we have played more teams than the Mead. Besides them and La Puente, we have good history with Rovia. They got us in 09 up in our own barn. We have also played TC and San Marino.

Our coaches know their way around the Mid Valley and leagues and still have a good vibe on whats happening down there.

As for our league and move…Sierra Canyon and Clete are the two obvious powerhouses in a league that actually expanded to 9 team. Other than say Brentwood, I wouldn’t expect much from anyone else. There is a HUGE drop-off in talent. The bottom half of the Alpha is comparable to the the bottom half of the Rio Hondo and As far as travel, yes we’re a drive. SC is slotted to play home game at Pierce JC.

Trust me…I know people are going to like the Mid-Valley come the postseason. It’s gonna be some great football.

New York

Pierce JC, huh? I think that is where Monrovia lost to Mira Costa in the 1997 finals. I guess we might have an opportunity to go down there redeem ourselves.

Desert Rat,
Tell us about Sierra Canyon. What type of football enrollment base do they have? What was their bread and butter last year?

Desert Rat

NY- Sierra Canyon’s team is bought and paid for. They recruit really heavy and are striving to be similiar to Oaks Christian. That is why they have had as much success over night. They graduated a handful of players including their qb, but return quality guys. They have an awesome running back. Word on the street is that they reloaded and snagged Justin Moore, the qb who led Westlake to a CIF SS championship and to state against De La Salle in the open division.

They run a lot of spread and some two back stuff. Lots of pistol, lots of motion and misdirection. Similiar to the University of Nevada-Reno. On defense, they like to run a 4-3 under/over look. They are beatable. We beat them twice in 2010 for league and CIF. We should of beat then in league but lost the lead late. In the finals we were flat. Last year was honestly their year. Now overall, my knock is that they just don’t want to play up. They played teams similiar to the Blair’s and La Canada’s of the world for the last few years and will for the most part this year. They have really no aspirations to go where they belong until that is, CIF forces them up.

But look, they won’t have it as easy in the Mid Valley. There are teams who can challenge them and give them fits. I think they’re good but lets see them play some teams with more than two or three quality kids.

Middy

Desert Rat:

Why would Moore transfer from Westlake? Doesn’t make sense.

Also, lets not talk about recruiting because all the Private schools do it.

Desert Rat

Middy- If you have paid attention the last few months, you would know what’s up with Moore. They didn’t take him directly from Westlake…the kid left that school, showed up at Royal and apparently quit football. Some months later he was linked to Sierra Canyon.

And I’ll throw something out there…if we ALL do it, then why doesn’t Paraclete have all the talent in the Antelope Valley and playing in the Pac 5?

Obviously you’re not as familiar with us because if that statement were 100% true, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Here’s a couple things to chew on…go ask the ’09 Northview team how much they were laughing at us when they saw us suited up in pregame. I don’t think anyone in the immediate Covina area thought we had a fighting chance against that stacked Vikings team. We didn’t anyone remotely close to Andrew Rodriguez’s size.

Shoot ask Koffler how he basically took the week off against us and got the team sized up for rings before the championship game because they all thought they had it in the bag.

So where I’m sitting sir/ma’am you’re 0 for 2 on this thread. You better up your game…..

Middy

Rat….No one down here is buying that bs. Koffler doesn’t take weeks off. That’s a fact.

You guys in ’09 were LEGIT! No sandbagging please. You guys have some special pieces….Like the monster that was suppose to go to LSU. Come on….You guys are in a different world. Please, don’t say you don’t “do it.” No one is buying that. It is what it is.

PAC 5…. i can’t respond to that. You guys are a lot smaller for one.

Desert Rat

Middy…you really think you know more than you really do. You lift yourself up on assumptions and falsehoods.

Koffler doesn’t do that? You really want to go there again…lol! Let me put it this way…when the game was over a lot of the Panthers were crying about losing but a lot of them they were really upset the coaching staff didn’t take week 14 serious. I mean you can think all you want…or do you want to call those young men liars? It came from their mouths.

It took more than talent for our ’09 team to learn how to fight and be winners. We weren’t as stacked as you would like to remember. I am not saying we didn’t have talent in 2009, but those kids found a way to play together.

Honestly, you have no clue what you’re talking about when it comes to us. We recruit…lol, yeah right. Kids are really tripping through the doors to get in.

New York

It’s nice to have Desert Rat back on the board! It is also nice to have a chance to play in cold weather again…high school football playoffs just seem better to me when guys can see their breath in warm-ups (for one game) and fans legitimately need quilts and hot chocolate. That said, our 2010 finals at Arcadia featured amazing weather that made for great pictures.

So is Clete’s strategy against Sierra Canyon to grind it out and play keep-away? Utilize the double wing and take the air out of the ball?

CoViNa

The playoff rankings seem about right with the proposed new mid valley format. One thing I can tell you is dont pencil in San Dimas right away, “no disrespect” But dont sleep on the Colts. Im not gonna go into detail, but trust me they will be right there. San Dimas and Covina will be playing for the league title again and both can make deep runs in the playoffs. The COLTS will be just fine… You heard it here first…

Desert Rat

Ah can’t give you the keys to the kingdom New York….but ball control is a big part of it.

They’re also setup for the “big strike” so you have to look to limit that too.

AZTEC PRIDE

Okay DESERT RAT, here’s a little cheese for you to nibble on. Did you know AZUSA was within one game of playing PARACLETE, in 2009, when you played FEAR THE MEAD, for the CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. We lost to TEMPLE CITY that year and that’s the team you also won. I mean you make the MONTVIEW LEAGUE sound like, whats the word you and MIDDY USED; P_ _ _ S and just cant PLAY FOOTBALL and that’s the farthest from the truth! Ever since the new coaching regime took over in 2009, AZUSA, for the MONTVIEW LEAGUE has held their own! I’ve been watching AZUSA play for quite sometime now and ever year they continue to get better and better and keep advancing further and further in the playoffs.

MIDDY, states we cant get over the VALLE VISTA LEAGUE, but how about the times we beat a team from the league twice in the playoffs. Hows this, AZUSA in the second round against SAN DIMAS this past season in the playoffs is driving at the SD 5 YARD LINE,; our running back fumbles the ball away and if AZUSA scores on that drive we WIN! , YES we would have gotten over the VVL HUMP! The year SAN DIMAS wins Monrovia, well you guess it they played AZUSA to get to Monrovia and SD wins the CHAMPIONSHIP that season. My prediction had we would had beaten SD ,THIS PAST SEASON and go to play SAN GABRIEL, I BELIEVE WE WOULD HAVE WON! Well then we would have played MONROVIA in the CHAMPIONSHIP CIF GAME, and LOST!!! HAHAHAHAHA..

So DE(SS)ERT RAT, AZUSA HAS BEATEN TEAMS FROM THE VVL,RIO HOND AND OLYMPIC LEAGUES all within the last four years, so next time please use a different word, because the MONTVIEW LEAGUE HAS (HUVEOS), okay cheese head! WHO WANTS TO TRAVEL THAT FAR AND PLUS ITS FREAKING FREEZING AT THAT TIME OF YEAR! THATS WHAT PROBABLY MADE ROSEMEAD LOSE!!! OOOH AND THE REALALINGMENT OF THE LEAGUES
SUCKS!!!

AZTEC PRIDE!

New York

Our team’s are built differently, so your strategy doesn’t really apply to us.

Out of curiosity, how will guys play a team with lots of wide outs, a pocket QB, and a tall and athletic offensive line? Pure curiosity…

New York…its all going to depend. If we are talking about Rovia, I would need to see what wrinkles Maddox implemented since Bueno departed. I’m sure their base offense is the same, but it will take some time to get a feel for updated personnel and schemes.

Desert Rat 2.0 will be in full cheese mode come this fall….so save us a seat won’t ya! Can’t wait to see the new digs.

Angola Prison

FYI Bueno has been gone for two seasons. Rovia won CIF without Bueno last year. Incase you havent heard…. WE JUST RELOAD

Desert Rat

Angola Prison aka Captain Obvious:

We haven’t been in the Mid-Valley since 2009. Hence, things have changed. Re-read the entire conversation before jumping in keyboard warrior.

New York

The Mission Valley needs to follow the Montview so that the Mission Valley has teams they can beat. Actually, it seems that the Mission Valley and Montview should have some natural rivalries, especially with Azusa having established a good program.

The Montview has been in the same division as the RHL for a long time, and they used to have to go against the Los Padres League as well. Basically the Montview champ was getting worked over by the Los Padres #4…the Gladstone La Puente coaches definitely had a problem with that.

The real issue is that Monrovia has outgrown the RHL and the Mid-Valley. Putting Sierra Canyon and Paraclete into the division seems like a response to Monrovia, but not a response to the rest of the Mid-Valley.

Taking Monrovia out of last year’s Mid-Valley playoff bracket would have created a lot of parity in the playoffs, where eight different teams would have had a legitimate shot: San Gabriel, San Dimas, Arroyo, Pomona, Covina, Azusa, Whittier Christian and Maranatha.

Instead, the CIF created a division that features what Desert Rat thinks could be an aspiring Oaks Christian sandbagging (Sierra Canyon), Paraclete and Monrovia. San Dimas and their system will always be competitive, but Monrovia is the only legacy team in this division to have beaten Paraclete.

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